Japan To Ask UNESCO To List Its Cuisine As An "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity"

A year after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan will submit to have UNESCO recognize its cuisine as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity". The country will argue that "Washoku: Traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese," a seasons-based cuisine based on rice, fish and vegetables, deserves to be on list that includes traditional Mexican cuisine (as we reported here in 2010), the gastronomic meal of the French, the Mediterranean diet, and gingerbread craft from Northern Croatia.

The government has said that the county "needs to restore confidence in Japanese food, which has been adversely affected by rumours due to the nuclear accident" and hopes that the UNESCO designation would help.

The application will be filed with UNESCO by the end of the month, but the ultimate decision won't be known until late 2013.

If the organization accepts Japan's bid, you'll see a video just like the ones below at UNESCO's Intangible Heritage List.

Edwin Goei was born on the island of Java, grew up in La Habra, studied in Irvine, and eats everywhere. Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, he went by the alias "elmomonster" on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.